Hi all,
New to the forum and only just got back into bass playing seriously over the last three years or so after a long lay off. I bought a used SVT 6 Pro and an Ampeg 1 x 15 and 2 x10 (separate deals on ebay), to upgrade from an Ashdown MAG300 + 1x15 + 2 x 10.
Cabs and amp are awesome once working, however I am experiencing an intermittent but serious problem when the amp is first switched on. I've been to three gigs with it, twice I've had the following problem and once it was fine.
The green power led and the red mute led illuminate briefly then die. This is because the power supply has been tripped. This has happened in three separate venues (including at home), so it's not the power supply per se. The fuse in the plug doesn't blow (it's 13A), neither does the fuse in the amp.
The first time it happened I was in a rehearsal facility, Blueprint in Manchester. I changed the ac lead in and it worked once we had reset the power supply
The last time this happened was Sunday when we were preparing to play a local festival and it knocked out the whole of the left hand side of the stage! As you can imagine I was pretty tense/anxious/annoyed! I changed the ac lead in, knocked the power out again. Eventually the techs from the PA outfit ran a direct power lead from the genny using a special ac adaptor and it powered up and ran fine.
However I can't have this sort of stress every time I go out and play, this was a big outlay to me in what I thought was an iconic name but now I'm worried to use it! I kept the Ashdown head as insurance and used that on the next gig Monday night.
Does anybody have any idea what might be causing this? Is there a big power surge when it's first switched on? What sort of ac lead in should I be using, does it have to be heavy gauge? (the amp didn't come with it's own lead, I'm using the one off the Ashdown). Hope someone can help, really disillusioned at the mo! :-(
Cheers,
Andy.